Sex-Related Comparisons: Theory 159Books. Books that children read also may
model and encourage gender-role-appropriate
behavior. Consider the classic fairy tales and
nursery rhymes that are still read to children.
Girls and boys alike learn from Cinderella,
Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White that “what
is beautiful is good” and clearly rewarded.
Specifically, men fall in love with beautiful
women; good women are obedient, gull-
ible, vulnerable, and—if beautiful—will be
rescued by men; other women (stepsisters,
stepmothers) are evil, competitors for men;
and a woman’s ultimate dream is to marry
a rich, handsome prince. Nursery rhymes
depict females as quiet and sweet, maids, cry-
ing, and running away from spiders, whereas
males are shown as kings, thieves, butch-
ers, and adventurers. I did not monitor my
daughter’s first books as carefully as I could
have for gender-role stereotypes, but I could
not bring myself to read her these nursery
rhymes. (She is undoubtedly scarred for lifetrains. Dads and Daughters, a nonprofit
organization aimed at monitoring the media
for advertising that undermines girls, was
instrumental in keeping Hasbro Toys from
releasing a line of dolls for young girls mod-
eled after a scantily-clad female music group
(FOX News, 2006). Unfortunately, a toned-
down version of this kind of doll—the wide-
eyed, full-lipped, sexy Bratz dolls—is still on
the shelves. More recently, a group of sixth
graders in Sweden reported about Toys “R”
Us to their government agency that regu-
lates marketing for restricting boys’ and girls’
choices by reinforcing gender roles in their
advertisements and packaging of toys (The
Local, 2009). The children complained that
the store showed girls and boys playing with
different types of toys making it difficult for
a boy to play with a toy that shows only girls
and vice versa. The agency concurred with
the children’s opinion and publicly repri-
manded Toys “R” Us—but the reprimand is
without sanctions.
Does it matter if girls and boys play
with different toys? The toys children play
with may influence sex differences in cogni-
tion and behavior. Blakemore and Centers
(2005) examined people’s perceptions of the
educational value of 126 toys that had been
categorized as strongly feminine, moderately
feminine, neutral, moderately masculine,
and strongly masculine (see Figure 5.10).
Neutral and moderately masculine toys were
rated the highest on overall educational
value, scientific attributes, cognitive skill
development, and physical skill develop-
ment. However, studies have not been con-
ducted to see if playing with boys’ toys leads
to greater spatial ability or playing with girls’
toys improves verbal skills. It also is possible
that children with better spatial skills are
drawn to boys’ toys and children with better
verbal skills are attracted to girls’ toys.FIGURE 5.10 Examples of toys that were cat-
egorized by Blakemore and Centers (2005) as ex-
tremely feminine, neutral, or extremely masculine.Feminine Toys Gender Neutral Masculine ToysM05_HELG0185_04_SE_C05.indd 159 6/21/11 8:03 AM